Trump to name Haitian gangs foreign terrorist organizations: report

The Trump administration has informed Congress that it intends to designate Haitian gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, sources told the Associated Press. 

A notification sent to congressional committees on April 23 says the administration will designate the Haitian gangs Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif as foreign terrorist organizations, thr AP reported, citing two people familiar with the message who spoke on condition of anonymity. A third source told the AP that the foreign relations committees in the House and Senate received the notification. 

In February, the Department of Homeland Security canceled an extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) shielding about half a million Haitians from deportation. 

The State Department formally designated eight Latin American organized crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations last month. They are Tren de Aragua (TdA) of Venezuela, Mara Salvatrucha – also known as MS-13 – of El Salvador, and the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel – also known as the "Zeta Killers," the Gulf Cartel and Northeast Cartel of Mexico and the La Nueva Familia Michoacana and United Cartels, all of Mexico. 

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The administration further categorized TdA as an invading force under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act as federal authorities ramp up efforts to deport its members.

Tens of thousands of Haitians came to the U.S. under a Biden-era program permitting people from four countries, including Haiti, to stay for two years provided they had a financial sponsor and bought their own plane ticket. The Trump administration terminated that program and is seeking to revoke the status of those admitted under the Biden administration.

Migration from Haiti was under scrutiny in 2024 as the Trump campaign drew attention to massive amounts of Haitian migration under the parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV), when 30,000 migrants were allowed in each month. At that point, if eligible, they could not be removed after their parole expired due to TPS. It affected a number of towns, including Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania.

At a Michigan rally Tuesday celebrating his 100th day back in office, Trump championed the eight designations from last month, vowing his White House would continue deportations.

"We have also designated two bloodthirsty transnational gangs, MS-13 and Tren de Agua, TdA. They've been designated the highest level of terrorist and that lets us do a lot of things that you wouldn't be able to do," Trump said. "We’ve got to get them out of here before they kill more people. They've killed plenty. My administration has increased arrests of known and suspected terrorists by 655%. Is that okay? We tried to get it higher. We tried to get it higher. But the courts are giving us a hard time." 

"Democrats have vowed mass invasion and mass migration. We are delivering mass deportation, and it's happening very fast. And the worst of the worst are being sent to a no nonsense prison in El Salvador," Trump said, referring to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. "Under President Trump, America is a dumping ground for criminals no longer. They're not even trying to come in. But while we're fighting to protect Americans, the radical left Democrats who are so bad for this country are fighting to protect TDA." 

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Viv Ansanm, which means "Living Together," is a powerful gang coalition that formed in September 2023 and is best known for launching a series of attacks starting in February 2024 across Port-au-Prince and beyond that shuttered Haiti’s main international airport for nearly three months, freed hundreds of inmates from the country’s two biggest prisons and eventually forced former Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.

The coalition united more than a dozen gangs, including two of Haiti’s biggest ones: G-9 and G-Pèp, which were fierce rivals.

Gangs control at least 85% of Haiti’s capital, with Viv Ansanm attacking once peaceful communities in recent weeks in a bid to control even more territory.

Gran Grif, also known as the Savien gang, forms part of the Viv Ansanm coalition and is led by Luckson Elan, best known as "General Luckson." It is the biggest gang operating in Haiti’s central Artibonite region with some 100 members.

It was blamed for an attack in the town of Pont-Sondé in October 2024 in which more than 70 people were killed in one of the biggest massacres in Haiti’s recent history.

Gran Grif was also blamed for a recent attack in the Petite Riviere community in which several people were killed, including an 11-year-old child.

Gran Grif was formed after Prophane Victor, an ex-member of Haiti’s Parliament who represented the Petite Riviere community in Artibonite, began arming young men in the region, according to a U.N. report. Victor was arrested in January.

Canada sanctioned him in June 2023, as did the U.S. in September 2024, accusing him of supporting gangs "that have committed serious human rights abuse."

More than 5,600 people were killed across Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than 1 million homeless in the country of nearly 12 million people, according to the U.N.

Fox News' Adam Shaw and the Associated Press contributed to this report.